Bogleheads.org

I have used Taxcaster in the past and found it good for my purposes. You might want to compare w/ others like this one from Block http://www.hrblock.com/free-tax-tips-calculators/tax-estimator.html Or your full blown TT return from last yr. Since it is free, it must be lacking certain features of th...

In this link http://fairmark.com/forum/read.php?2,7351 , it appears that Alan S. is saying the same thing
as Laura's IRS link.............that you have to withdraw the associated earnings as well as the current yr contribution if you
want to recontribute later for that yr.

Good find, Laura. Thanks. Must the withdrawal be a total withdrawal of that yrs' contribution (including earnings) or can it be a partial withdrawal (I assume if partials are allowed that they would have to be considered as a combination of contribution and earnings in the same ratio as if the full ...

According to this http://www.rothira.com/blog/can-you-return-withdrawn-roth-ira-contributions you can withdraw current yr contributions and then recontribute before that yr's deadline. I believe I have seen Alan S. say the same thing at another time/place so hopefully he will be along to confirm or ...

Eric, thanks for those links. After reading (actually more like attempting to read) them, I now understand why you're glad you're
travelling. My head hurts but I'll save them for another time when more might sink in......

Eric wrote:One wrinkle concerns capital gain income. In some cases that income will be taxed to the trust, rather than the beneficiary, even if it is distributed to the beneficiary.
.

Eric......what determines whether the CG income is taxed to the trust vs the beneficiary?

You probably should wait to get Alan S.' s view of this but based on this article: (see section on opting out of w/h) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/business/retirementspecial/04ROTH.html?_r=0 I'm guessing that the net amount gets reported as the Roth conversion and the withheld amount gets treat...

A few last questions. 1. Does medigap and medicare part A and B cover doctors' appointments and lab work. The descriptions I find online for the plans do not make this clear. 2. Am I correct that Mass. SHIP is who I call for help figuring this out? The web site I get to from medicare.gov's SHIP lin...

WHL wrote:Per person, so as long as your wife has earned income, she's good to go.

how about a spousal IRA where one spouse rides on the other's earned income?

to those who worry about potential cc autopay (debit) problems: Do you have direct deposit of paycheck to your bank account? or direct deposit of fund dividends ? Not relevant since those are deposits, not debits? well, not really, since you've created an electronic link that turns out to be a 2-way...

Have you tried escalating to a supervisor who might know more?

momar wrote:If you look at his profile, you can see when he was last online.

good one: caught in the act Last visited:Mon Apr 22, 2013 1:45 pm
Big Brother exists

Am I correct to conclude, then, since our only investment income is the interest on our checking account, that we can maximize our EIC by putting all of this year’s retirement savings in our 403b and by making a small contribution to an IRA equal only to the interest we earn in our checking account...

Now, the question: Is there any way each custodian can tease out the deduc from the non-deduct amounts, incl their respective gains over the years, so I can roll over the deduct. + gains into a 401k, thereby leaving only the non-deduct+gains which I could then roll over to a Roth as a backdoor? My ...

The calculation of EIC is on Wksht A pg. 53 of the 1040 instructions. Looks to me like it calculates EIC1 based on earned income and EIC2 based on AGI. The actual EIC is the smaller of the 2 EICs. For a given status the EIC curve increases from 0 with increasing earned income (AGI) and then returns ...

A question about taking the misc deduction loss.........don't know about 529s but a similar thing can be done for Roths. In the Roth case, however, I believe you can only take a loss if you dispose of all your Roth accounts and have a net loss on the combo. Here OP may have a net loss on the combo b...

Another thing to consider is that you don't have to invest in your own state's 529 plan. Some states offer a tax deduction and some don't. Does the tax deduction go w/ the state, or w/ the state plan ? or does it need to be both? If I live in CA whose state plan does not have a tax deduction, and I...

I believe you are correct (if your starting base is your "gross" income before 401K contributions). The definition of earned income seems to come in a wksht (e.g. see p.14 here) http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040ez.pdf The starting point in that wksht is line 1 of the 1040EZ (wages, sala...

Doesn't sound like there should be a penalty based on your input. I assume you are using some sort of tax software which generated the penalty? You might want to name that software and someone familiar w/ it could help. As damjam suggests, the code in box 7 is key and you may need to find a workaro...

Doesn't sound like there should be a penalty based on your input. I assume you are using some sort of tax software which generated the penalty? You might want to name that software and someone familiar w/ it could help. As damjam suggests, the code in box 7 is key and you may need to find a workarou...

How much did you contribute to the Roth and how much did you withdraw? Did you make any conversions? When?

Bluthund wrote:IRS FORM F8606. google it.

would you mind showing us a completed 8606 to demonstrate what you are saying?
(or just show the entries by line no. Thanks.

damjam.......I suspect you are correct. from Pub 17: The last sentence suggests that you have to take each yrs loss into account regardless of whether you file or not. Capital loss carryover. If you have a total net loss on line 16 of Schedule D (Form 1040) that is more than the yearly limit on capi...

But only if you have income. If you only have $2000 of income, you don't have to use $3000 of your losses.* Of course, actually filling out the forms (the Capital Loss Carryover Worksheet and Schedule D) will give you the answers for your exact situation. This doesn't seem to be the case. When I tr...

Alan, thanks for that exhaustive list........
item 6) never realized that......is that handled mechanically on F8606 or do you have to think about it?
item 5) I'm having trouble understanding what that means. Any way to rephrase or perhaps a numerical example might help.
Thanks.

Those who take the std deduction benefit from this. If you itemize, no benefit. (except see livesoft above)
.......and this only applies for us geezers .

Tax law is public knowledge and deductions are intended to be utilized. There is nothing that prevents OP from giving someone money and encouraging the other party to donate to charity. Correct. As long as OP understands that what he is doing is gifting daughter, and she is under no legal obligatio...

https://www.accuverify.com/1040-tax-transcript-sample.pdf

Does it look like this? How about the 3 lines starting w/ Capital Gain or Loss (sch D)

Kaneohe, I may be wrong and will wait for Alan's input. However, if I remember correctly those of use who took our 2012 RMD prior to December 2012 could not take a QCD for 2012. And if we took the RMD in December 2012 we could write a personal check to the qualified charity and have it count as a Q...

Hex, Your QCD(s) has/have to be taken in full before you you take any RMD in a given year in order for the QCD to count. . Tom, you might want to review this statement I seem to recall (but unfortunately can't find) Alan S. saying that you could take QCDs interspersed with normal distributions as l...

from the instructions for F709: Line 7 The applicable credit (formerly unified credit) amount is the tentative tax on the applicable exclusion amount. For gifts made in 2012, the applicable exclusion amount equals: The basic exclusion amount of $5,120,000, PLUS Any deceased spousal unused exclusion ...

a related post from another forum http://fairmark.com/forum/read.php?4,69611 Re: Form 709 Gift Tax Posted by: Kaye Thomas, April 7, 2013 01:00AM When the gift comes from community property you're each giving half so there's no reason to elect gift splitting. That election is typically used when one ...

Using the HR Block tax calculator, AGI of 11749, std deduction & exemption yields tax of 200. Parents lose 3800 exemption leading to increase in their tax of 950 if in 25% bracket . Combination is 1150, very slightly lower than the previous 1181. Problem is if parents can claim her as dependent ...

I am not sure this guarantees the right result but it seems simple enough to fund it from a jt. account either with a single check signed by both or with two equal checks , one signed by H and the other signed by W. Not sure what you do if you are funding electronically unless there are separate log...

Correct......it's always useful to confirm with a tax calculator or software like the one given in the link above. You can input a few numbers to see how things change. Yesterday I put in simple examples like loss carryover 50K ( either ST or LT) and gain 100K (either ST or LT). You then get a 2 x 2...

You might need to model your situation since it might depend on your specific assumptions. Leaving stocks in the Roth might grow faster than in taxable with loss carryover but on the other side, bonds is taxable will yield less than bonds in Roth .

Were the HH bonds purchased w/ EE bonds and the interest deferred as damjam asked earlier? If so, there might be two parts to box 3 ...current interest and deferred interest making for a larger total interest (at least for the 1099-INT issued by US Treasury)

If your loss carryover is larger than your gain, you will have a net loss so it doesn't matter. If your gain is larger than your loss carrryover, you will have a net gain. If the gain is ST, the net gain is ST and taxed at ordinary income rates. If the gain is LT, the net gain is LT and taxed at LTC...

Isn't the answer 2) in either case? True that you don't do anything w/ it if you haven't sold it but the basis increased in either case.
http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Investments-and-Taxes/Non-Qualified-Stock-Options/INF12046.html

Yes II have filed 8606 forms since the beginning but I have never accumulated them to determine how much I have contributed vs how much is gain. I will have to do this. I am not sure what you mean here.........each 8606 builds on the previous history so you should only have to look at the last one ...

Could that 1% be the fees for the entity administering the trust?

jerome99 wrote: In my research, their high yield savings accounts are at 1.6% with balances of $100,000.

do you have a link to this? I can't find anything close to that yield.

This is from the IRS Pub 550 page 70 middle column, second paragraph: "When you figure the amount of any capital loss carryover to the next year, you must take the current year's allowable deduction into account, whether or not you claimed it and whether or not you filed a return for the curre...

rebooted Mac.........so far, so good w/Safari (knock on wood.........)

Capital gains come when you sell appreciated securities. If they appreciate but you don't sell, they are unrealized gains and are not taxable. LTCGs (held >1yr) are typically taxed at 0% (if in 15% bracket) or 15% (if in higher brackets) (there may be higher rates for higher earners). You can also ...

Capital gains come when you sell appreciated securities. If they appreciate but you don't sell, they are unrealized gains and are not taxable. LTCGs (held >1yr) are typically taxed at 0% (if in 15% bracket) or 15% (if in higher brackets) (there may be higher rates for higher earners). You can also g...

My Questions : If I were to CONTRIBUTE to the existing Roth that had previously had only CONVERTED dollars, which clock would apply to the newly CONTRIBUTED dollars? If I were to CONVERT to the existing Roth that had previously had only CONTRIBUTED dollars, which clock would apply to newly CONVERTE...

Be careful w/ that table.......it tends to degrade the brain and memory because you don't have to think or remember anymore.........as long as you can find it again.

Here is a table by kawill from the fairmark.com site: some critical punctuation is missing so imagine a semi-colon after every yes or no. Also note the ordering rules: withdrawals are contributions first, then taxable portions of conversions, etc just as they are listed in table, with earnings last....

I am interested in keeping the number of accounts down and keeping things simple. If I have existing Roth IRAs that were converted three years ago from traditional IRAs, can I add additional funds to the converted Roths or do I need to open a new Roth for funds I would like to add this year? I thin...